Read The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) for Free Online

an
unexpected pleasure. After we were cut off the other day, I was
worried sick. Unfortunately, we've had a rash of illnesses lately.
The flu, some rather bad colds, things like that.”
    As she spoke, Clara led
Simon to the couch and sat him down firmly, first taking his coat and
hanging it next to the door.
    “ I wanted to send
someone to check on you, but we've yet to find any horses out in the
wild and slogging for hours to your place is a challenge in winter.”
    Simon had to smile at her
chatter. It was good to speak to someone who knew him, after being
alone for a few days.
    “ I'm glad you didn't
send anyone,” he told her. “The cold has been pretty bad
and I'd hate for someone to get injured on my account. Besides, I'm
fine.”
    Clara had poured him some
tea from a pot on a sideboard but stopped at the sudden change of
tone in his voice.
    “ Really? I mean, you
look fine. But you don't sound fine.”
    She offered him the tea,
took her own cup and sat down at the other end of the couch.
    “ What's wrong?”
she asked as she watched him closely. “Considering how cold
your hands are, I'm guessing you didn't just Gate here.”
    The wizard took a few sips
of tea and sighed. The chamomile was a gift from himself and Kronk,
who'd had a special touch when it came to growing things.
    “ You're very
perceptive, as usual,” he said with a tight smile. “And
you're right. I didn't Gate here. The truth is...”
    He hesitated and stared
down into his cup.
    “ The truth, Clara,
is that I can't Gate anymore. In fact, I can't cast any spells at
all. My magic is gone.”
    The cleric stared at him
in disbelief.
    “ What do you mean,
gone?”
    “ Just that. It's
gone. All the spells I learned from the gods of Justice have been
erased from my mind. And even the spells that I discovered on my own
are useless. I memorize them just fine, but when I try to cast them,
nothing happens.”
    He flinched at what he
thought was a whiny edge in his voice.
    “ Look, I'm not
complaining. Not really. It's just that after more than three years,
magic had become second nature to me, like my physical strength was
back in the old days. To lose it, just like that, well...” He
paused and tried to smile. “I'm feeling a bit lost and scared,
to be honest.”
    Clara smiled in sympathy,
reaching out to pat his hand as she listened.
    “ I didn't think such
a thing was possible, Simon,” she told him. “The magic
that you and I and some of the others use is a gift from the gods, as
you know. They've slipped it into the stream of power that their evil
brethren are pumping into the world. It sounds as if the evil ones
found that power and, I don't know, blocked it somehow.”
    Simon nodded dejectedly.
    “ My thought
exactly,” he said. “And if that's true, then I'm done as
a wizard.”
    The cleric stared at him
for a long moment and then snorted.
    “ Nonsense,”
she said firmly.
    The wizard looked at her
in confusion.
    “ What?”
    “ I said nonsense.”
    Clara stood up abruptly
and went to fill her cup. She spoke as she poured.
    “ Simon, my powers
are still intact, as are the powers of Eric and the others.”
She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. “The ones you
call the Fantastic Foursome.”
    The wizard smiled in spite
of himself. Four of the Changlings; Eric, Virginia, Gerard and Anna,
used magic as a group. Singly, their powers were practically
nonexistent. But together, they were very powerful indeed.
    “ Which means,”
Clara continued, ”that the flow of magic from the Void, from
the gods of Light and Justice, continues.”
    She sat down again.
    “ So whatever has
happened to you, has been achieved through some other means.
Something specifically aimed at you.”
    Simon felt a spark of hope
at that thought. He'd been sure the magic itself had been cut off. If
it hadn't, maybe there was a way to regain his powers.
    “ Tell me what
happened after we lost contact,” she asked. “You had
repelled the dragons